There is an e-mail going around showing this menu from Woolworth's from 1957. It got me remembering how I loved this store. We didn't have a Woolworth's 5&10 in Willow Grove where I grew up, but we did have a G.C. Murphy's which was similar. We used to go there as much as we were allowed to walk the mile there, starting when we were about twelve years old. I even had my first little job there when I was fourteen. I remember getting "working papers" in order to allow me to get a job. Do they still have this process for kids? I worked after school at the baby counter, selling little baby clothes and other items. Murphy's. Soft pretzels, Tangee lipstick, Evening in Paris cologne, boys.
The big Woolworth's that I loved was in center city Philadelphia. It had two floors and the best one was on the ground floor with the lunch counter. I attended medical secretarial school in Philadelphia after I graduated from high school and rode the train from Willow Grove everyday. Whenever I could, I would go to Woolworth's. What wonderful, inexpensive stuff you could get at Woolworth's.
Woolworth's is gone. Murphy's is gone. They are replaced by Walmart and KMart and dollar stores. But they just aren't the same. Even today I look for an old 5&10, preferably with a lunch counter, in a small town. There are a few around. If you know of any, please let me know.
